• 전력전자학회논문지
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• 제25권5호
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• pp.412-419
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• 2020

In this study, a 70 W buck converter using GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) is developed. This converter exhibits over 97 % efficiency, high power density, and 48 V-to-12 V/1.2 V/1 V (triple output). Three gate drivers and six GaN MOSFETs are placed in a 1 ㎠ area to enhance power density and heat dissipation capacity. The theoretical switching and conduction losses of the GaN MOSFETs are calculated. Inductances, capacitances, and resistances for the output filters of the three buck converters are determined to achieve the desired current, voltage ripples, and efficiency. An equivalent circuit model for the thermal analysis of the proposed triple-output buck converter is presented. The junction temperatures of the GaN MOSFETs are estimated using the thermal model. Circuit operation and temperature analysis are evaluated using a circuit simulation tool and the finite element analysis results. An experimental test bed is built to evaluate the proposed design. The estimated switch and heat sink temperatures coincide well with the measured results. The designed buck converter has 130 W/in³ power density and 97.6 % efficiency.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.36-42
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• 2009

This paper presents a review of an improved high power-high frequency III-V wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor device, Gallium Nitride (GaN). The device offers better efficiency and thermal management with higher switching frequency. By having higher blocking voltage, GaN can be used for high voltage applications. In addition, the weight and size of passive components on the printed circuit board can be reduced substantially when operating at high frequency. With proper management of thermal and gate drive design, the GaN power converter is expected to generate higher power density with lower stress compared to its counterparts, Silicon (Si) devices. The main contribution of this work is to provide additional information to young researchers in exploring new approaches based on the device's capability and characteristics in applications using the GaN power converter design.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.841-848
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• 2015

As a vital part of renewable energy and electrical traction, power converters are supposed to have high reliability and good performance. However, power semiconductors produce considerable heat when the power converter works, which results in high junction temperatures that lower the reliability and performance of the power semiconductors. Many studies show that ambient humidity has a significant effect on power devices, but the influence of high humidity on junction temperatures has yet to be studied. Therefore, this paper presents a thermal model for power converters in moist air to obtain the junction temperature increase, which is utilized for the power converter used in a Switched Reluctance Motor System. Simulation results show that the law of converter temperature distribution is independent of the relative humidity in the case of fixed ambient temperature, whereas the temperature in the power converter decreases as the ambient relative humidity increases. These simulation results are validated with the experimental results.

• 한국자동차공학회논문집
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• 제10권3호
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• pp.61-69
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• 2002

To meet stringent LEV and ULEV emission standards, a considerable amount of development work was necessary to ensure suitable efficiency and durability of catalyst systems. The main challenge is to cut off the engine cold-start emissions. It is known that up to 80% of the total hydrocarbons(THC) are exhausted within the first five minutes in case of US FTP 75 cycle. Close-Coupled Catalyst(CCC) provides fast light-off temperature by utilizing the energy in the exhaust gas. However, if some malfunction occurred at engine operation and the catalyst temperature exceeds 1050$\^{C}$, the catalytic converter is deactivated and shows the poor conversion efficiency. This paper presents effEcts of engine operating conditions on catalytic converter temperature in a SI engine, which are the indications of catalytic deactivation. Exhaust gas temperature and catalyst temperature were measured as a function of air/fuel ratio, ignition timing and misfire rates. Additionally, light-off time was measured to investigate the effect of operating conditions. It was found that ignition retard and misfire can result in the deactivation of the catalytic converter, which eventually leads the drastic thermal aging of the converter. Significant reduction in light-off time can be achieved with proper control of ignition retard and misfire, which can reduce cold-start HC emissions as well.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 2017년도 전력전자학술대회
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• pp.359-360
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• 2017

This paper presents comparison of simulation and experiment in thermal analysis of 3-level PFC. Thermal analysis is necessary to optimize the power conversion system to get higher efficiency. Accordingly, analysis via simulation tools and analytic methods is performed to predict the power losses of converter. Consequently, thermal results of 3-level PFC experiment is compared with thermal analysis.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제13권6호
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• pp.1080-1089
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• 2013

In this paper, the superposition principle of a heat sink temperature rise is verified based on the mathematical model of a plate-fin heat sink with two mounted heat sources. According to this, the distributed coupling thermal impedance matrix for a heat sink with multiple devices is present, and the equations for calculating the device transient junction temperatures are given. Then methods to extract the heat sink thermal impedance matrix and to measure the Epoxy Molding Compound (EMC) surface temperature of the power Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) instead of the junction temperature or device case temperature are proposed. The new thermal impedance model for the power converters in Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) drivers is implemented in MATLAB/Simulink. The obtained simulation results are validated with experimental results. Compared with the Finite Element Method (FEM) thermal model and the traditional thermal impedance model, the proposed thermal model can provide a high simulation speed with a high accuracy. Finally, the temperature rise distributions of a power converter with two control strategies, the maximum junction temperature rise, the transient temperature rise characteristics, and the thermal coupling effect are discussed.

• 한국산업융합학회 논문집
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• 제21권6호
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• pp.265-271
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• 2018

DC-DC buck converter is a critical building block in the power management integrated circuit (PMIC) architecture for the portable devices such as cellular phone, personal digital assistance (PDA) because of its power efficiency over a wide range of conversion ratio. To ensure a safe operation, avoid unexpected damages and enhance the reliability of the converter, fully-integrated protection circuits such as over voltage protection (OVP), under voltage lock out (UVLO), startup, and thermal shutdown (TSD) blocks are designed. In this paper, these three fully-integrated protection circuit blocks are proposed for use in the DC-DC buck converter. The buck converter with proposed protection blocks is operated with a switching frequency of 1 MHz in continuous conduction mode (CCM). In order to verify the proposed scheme, the buck converter has been designed using a 180 nm CMOS technology. The UVLO circuit is designed to track the input voltage and turns on/off the buck converter when the input voltage is higher/lower than 2.6 V, respectively. The OVP circuit blocks the buck converter's operation when the input voltage is over 3.3 V, thereby preventing the destruction of the devices inside the controller IC. The TSD circuit shuts down the converter's operation when the temperature is over $85^{\circ}C$. In order to verify the proposed scheme, these protection circuits were firstly verified through the simulation in SPICE. The proposed protection circuits were then fabricated and the measured results showed a good matching with the simulation results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.685-694
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• 2016

This paper presents a reliability assessment model for the power semiconductors used in wind turbine power converters. In this study, the thermal loadings at different timescales of wind speed are considered. First, in order to address the influence of long-term thermal cycling caused by variations in wind speed, the power converter operation state is partitioned into different phases in terms of average wind speed and wind turbulence. Therefore, the contributions can be considered separately. Then, in regards to the reliability assessment caused by short-term thermal cycling, the wind profile is converted to a wind speed distribution, and the contribution of different wind speeds to the final failure rate is accumulated. Finally, the reliability of an actual power converter semiconductor for a 2.5 MW wind turbine is assessed, and the failure rates induced by different timescale thermal behavior patterns are compared. The effects of various parameters such as cut-in, rated, cut-out wind speed on the failure rate of power devices are also analyzed based on the proposed model.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 1997년도 전력전자학술대회 논문집
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• pp.295-298
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• 1997

In large system, design margin makes relatively price higher. So, optimal design through exact analysis of thermal behavior is needed. In this paper, we propose the equivalent load test facility using two inverter & converter system and inductors. Applying actual electrical profiles for motor drive, thermal characteristics of power converter fed AC motor drive are obtained, and the results are compared with simulation results.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제23권7호
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• pp.841-855
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• 1999

In the present work, the effect of a flow maldistribution on the thermal and conversion response of 8 monolith catalytic converter is Investigated. To achieve this goal, a combined chemical reaction and multi-dimensional fluid dynamic mathematical model has been developed. The present results show that flow uniformity within the monolith brick has 8 great impact on light-off performance of the catalytic converter. In the case of lower flow uniformity, large portions of the monolith remain cold due to locally concentrated high velocities and CO, HC are unconverted during warm-up period, which loads to retardation of light-off. It has been also found that the heat-up pattern of the monolith ill similar to the flow distribution profile, In the early stage of the reaction. It may be concluded that flow maldistribution can cause a significant retardation of the light-off and hence can eventually worsen tho conversion efficiency of automotive catalytic converter.